In the blink of an eye, nearly three years had passed since Nagato and the others first entered the Ninja Academy.
Today was the day of their placement examination, leaving the usually lively Academy unusually quiet.
Over those three years, the class-track reform proposed by Kizaru had been fully implemented. The new system had gradually stabilized, and there was no longer any need for him to personally oversee every minor detail.
Uchiha Fugaku and Hyūga Hizashi had become Kizaru's most capable assistants. Fugaku was responsible for academic affairs, while Hizashi handled student discipline.
With the Byakugan's terrifying observational abilities at his disposal, Hizashi had become the nightmare of every troublemaker in the Academy. No matter how carefully a student tried to hide, the smallest violation would inevitably be discovered.
In private, the students had even given him a nickname.
The Omnipresent White Ghost.
When Hizashi first learned of it, he was deeply unsettled.
Working together for three years had brought Fugaku and Hizashi much closer. Although they still competed against each other in nearly everything, they had also come to regard one another as trusted friends.
When Hizashi was troubled by his unflattering nickname, Fugaku repeatedly tried to comfort him.
Unfortunately, while doing so, Fugaku accidentally discovered the nickname the students had given him.
The World-Weary Red-Eyed Demon.
The situation immediately reversed.
This time, it was Hizashi who had to comfort a visibly wounded Fugaku.
The words world-weary were especially cruel to Uchiha Fugaku, who had only recently turned twenty.
If even his two most reliable subordinates had been given such nicknames, Kizaru naturally had no chance of escaping.
As the Academy's principal, he possessed a rather troublesome personality and frequently teased the students. Because of that, the nickname they gave him was even more infamous.
The Greedy Grinning Demon King.
The origin of the name was simple.
Over the past three years, Kizaru had confiscated countless snacks, toys, and comic books that students had secretly brought into the Academy.
Not a single one had ever been returned.
Among all the victims, Sasori had undoubtedly suffered the greatest losses.
It was not merely the toys he brought to class that Kizaru confiscated. Even the mechanical armor Sasori had constructed for competitions was seized on the grounds that it was far too dangerous to be carried around the Academy.
Fortunately, the Bandai Toy Shop had expanded rapidly during those three years.
What had once been a small family workshop had developed into a medium-sized commercial enterprise, with annual revenue comfortably exceeding a billion ryō.
The generous yearly dividends had turned Sasori's parents into some of the village's earliest successful private entrepreneurs.
His family was wealthy, his parents supported him, and Sasori had no shortage of pocket money. As a result, he could freely invest in the development and construction of his mechanical armor.
At first, Sasori's parents had not approved of his unusual approach.
Instead of seriously studying traditional puppetry, he had devoted most of his attention to creating enormous mechanical suits. To experienced puppet masters, it seemed as though he were abandoning the foundations of the Puppet Technique.
However, their attitude changed after Sasori completed the first generation of his mechanical armor and demonstrated its considerable combat power.
Kizaru's words had also played an important part in persuading them.
"Just imagine it," he had said with his usual lazy smile. "A talented puppeteer wearing armor that protects his greatest weakness while controlling several puppets at the same time…"
He had tilted his head slightly.
"Ooh… wouldn't that be pretty scary?"
A puppet master's greatest vulnerability had always been the puppet master himself.
Sasori's mechanical armor compensated for that weakness perfectly.
An exceptional puppet master protected inside a powerful suit of armor could fight personally while simultaneously manipulating several puppets from a distance.
If such a fighting style were perfected, how powerful could that puppet master eventually become?
After hearing Kizaru's reasoning and witnessing the strength of Sasori's first mechanical suit themselves, Sasori's parents completely changed their minds.
From that day onward, they gave their full support to Sasori's research and development.
Sasori was not the only student Kizaru had helped.
During those three years, he had paid close attention to every child studying at the Academy. Whenever possible, he quietly supported them from behind the scenes, allowing them to pursue paths they genuinely enjoyed and for which they possessed real talent.
One of Sasori's classmates was a girl from the Akimichi Clan.
She had little interest in her clan's secret techniques and lacked any particular talent for taijutsu. What she truly loved was medical ninjutsu.
Fortunately, the powerful Yang chakra inherited through the Akimichi bloodline also made her well suited to that field.
Her parents initially objected to her decision, believing that she should continue the family tradition.
After learning about the situation, Kizaru personally visited them as the Academy's principal.
By the time he left, the girl had received permission to study medical ninjutsu.
There was another student in the second year, a boy from the Hyūga Clan's branch family.
He had earned perfect scores in his theoretical courses and displayed exceptional talent for research and technical development. His parents fully supported his interests and wanted him to continue along that path.
However, an elder from the main family forcefully intervened.
The elder insisted that the boy devote himself to learning the Gentle Fist and eventually enter the Academy's combat track.
His reasoning was simple.
The duty of the branch family was to protect the main family. Therefore, every child born into the branch family had to master the Gentle Fist and become a combat shinobi.
Under pressure from the main family, the boy's parents had no choice but to reduce the time he spent on theoretical studies and force him to dedicate more hours to Gentle Fist training.
Yahiko eventually learned what had happened and reported it to Kizaru.
After hearing the full story, Kizaru took Hizashi with him and personally visited the elder responsible.
This conversation proved considerably more difficult than the discussion with the Akimichi family.
The Hyūga elder was simply too stubborn.
Against someone so unwilling to listen, Kizaru could only resort to a more direct and effective form of persuasion.
That afternoon, the elder's residence was reduced to rubble.
The few teeth remaining in his mouth were also "accidentally" knocked out.
It was the first time Kizaru had personally taken action in nearly two years.
Without using chakra, Haki, or any special technique, he relied solely on his physical strength to overwhelm the Hyūga Clan's most obstinate traditionalists in hand-to-hand combat.
As he prepared to leave, Kizaru stopped at the shattered gate and glanced back over his shoulder.
His usual smile remained on his face, but there was no warmth behind it.
"If anything happens to my student or his parents…"
His voice was as slow and casual as ever.
"Then I suppose the Hyūga Clan and I won't be friends anymore. That would be unfortunate, wouldn't it?"
Those words carried far more weight than any furious threat.
Kizaru was not merely the strongest shinobi in the world.
His strength had already reached a level where he could destroy a major nation by himself. On top of that, he was widely regarded as the Third Hokage's successor and was supported by many of Konoha's shinobi, clans, and influential figures.
His warning was not empty intimidation.
Kizaru truly possessed the power to leave the Hyūga Clan without a place in Konoha—or erase the clan altogether.
The Hyūga who had initially been furious immediately suppressed their anger.
After that day, the main family lost an elder, while the branch family happily welcomed several new members.
That was the explanation the Hyūga Clan later gave Kizaru.
The punishment had been personally carried out by the Hyūga clan head, the father of Hiashi and Hizashi. He had taken advantage of the incident to weaken the authority of the conservative elders who had long interfered with his leadership.
Kizaru's attack on the Hyūga compound was the only time he personally used force during those three years, but the incident still created a considerable commotion throughout the village.
At a meeting of Konoha's senior leadership, Kizaru's teacher, the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, and his uncle, Shimura Danzō, severely criticized his behavior.
As punishment, he was confined to his home for one month and had his salary suspended for an entire year.
After publicly handing down such a "severe" punishment, Hiruzen and Danzō privately expressed their apologies to the Hyūga Clan.
Their message was carefully worded.
Although the Hyūga Clan had refused to cooperate with the village's reforms, Kizaru's methods had indeed been somewhat rough and inappropriate.
As Kizaru's teacher and uncle, they were deeply sorry. They wished to offer their apologies and condolences on his behalf and hoped that the Hyūga Clan would not allow resentment over the incident to damage the village's harmony.
The representatives of the other shinobi clans and the civilian shinobi attending the meeting immediately understood the real meaning behind those words.
The Hokage and his advisor were not genuinely condemning Kizaru.
They were warning the Hyūga Clan.
The Hyūga clan head understood as well.
He immediately declared that the Hyūga would continue following the village's policies. He also emphasized that his son Hizashi was one of Kizaru's closest associates and that Hiashi, the clan heir, had supported Kizaru's reforms from the beginning.
Seeing that the Hyūga Clan understood the situation, Hiruzen and Danzō were satisfied and chose not to pursue the matter further.
In truth, they had originally intended to hold the Hyūga Clan accountable.
Kizaru striking an elder was certainly wrong, but that could be settled with an apology and a symbolic punishment.
The Hyūga Clan's actions were another matter entirely.
From the perspective of the village's leadership, the elder had publicly obstructed an official reform policy. His behavior was not merely stubbornness within his own clan. It could easily be interpreted as direct opposition to the Hokage's administration.
Did the Hyūga Clan object to Konoha's reforms?
Or did they object to the Hokage and his chosen successor?
Had the matter been pushed any further, the village could have branded the Hyūga Clan as openly opposing both the Hokage and Konoha itself.
Fortunately, the situation never reached that point.
When Kizaru visited the Hyūga compound, Hiashi, the heir to the main family, had sided with him.
However, Hiruzen and Danzō's dissatisfaction with the Hyūga elder came from an even deeper concern.
Three years earlier, when Kizaru began transforming his body to accommodate senjutsu, he had deliberately exaggerated the difficulty and danger of the process.
His reason was simple.
He did not want his teacher and uncle arranging troublesome missions that would interfere with his peaceful life.
Kizaru told them that the Great Toad Sage had warned him to avoid exerting himself whenever possible during the next three to five years.
Otherwise, the balance of natural energy within his body might collapse, rendering all his previous efforts to master senjutsu meaningless.
After learning the differences between the chakra system and senjutsu, as well as the potential growth offered by both paths, Hiruzen and Danzō fully supported Kizaru's decision.
They both knew that the First Hokage had become significantly more powerful after mastering Sage Mode.
If Kizaru successfully completed his transition, not only would his strength increase, but his lifespan could also be greatly extended.
That was unquestionably a good thing for Konoha.
Under ordinary circumstances, even a powerful shinobi could remain at the peak of their abilities for only fifty or sixty years. As their body aged, their strength would gradually decline until death finally claimed them.
However, if Kizaru truly mastered senjutsu at its highest level, his lifespan might extend for several centuries—or perhaps even thousands of years, like the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku.
A God of Shinobi capable of living for hundreds of years would remain in Konoha as its eternal guardian.
That meant Konoha would continue to be the strongest hidden village in the shinobi world for centuries.
Thinking even further into the future, perhaps Konoha itself could eventually become a sacred land of shinobi comparable to Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, or Shikkotsu Forest.
If such a magnificent future were jeopardized because of one stubborn Hyūga elder, neither Hiruzen nor Danzō would ever forgive him.
Although the two disagreed on how Konoha should develop, both men were equally devoted to the village.
Hiruzen hoped that after Kizaru completed his transformation, he would protect Konoha for centuries—or even millennia—allowing the village to remain peaceful and prosperous forever.
Danzō's ambitions were different.
He wanted to complete Konoha's unification of the shinobi world during his own lifetime and then leave Kizaru to preserve that unified era.
Danzō had once worried that even if Konoha succeeded in unifying the shinobi world, the situation would eventually collapse after he and Kizaru grew old and died.
Once the central figures holding everything together disappeared, the various nations and hidden villages might gradually rebel, causing the unified order to crumble.
That concern vanished the moment he learned that Kizaru's mastery of senjutsu could greatly extend his lifespan.
As long as Kizaru maintained his peak strength for three hundred years, Konoha's rule would become completely stable.
By then, no one would be capable of overturning it.
Hiruzen and Danzō held different ideals, but they agreed on one thing.
They both wanted Kizaru to live for centuries and continue protecting Konoha.
Naturally, after learning that senjutsu could extend a person's lifespan, both men considered whether they could follow the same path.
After all, who would refuse the opportunity to live longer?
Kizaru did not hide anything from them.
He personally attempted to guide natural energy into their bodies and help them begin training in senjutsu.
Unfortunately, perhaps because of their age or a lack of compatibility, neither Hiruzen nor Danzō succeeded.
Even after more than a month of effort, they were unable to properly sense natural energy, much less absorb and control it.
Both men had grown into powerful shinobi through years of battle and hardship. They were not easily discouraged by failure.
Once they confirmed that they lacked the necessary aptitude, they abandoned their attempts to learn senjutsu.
For Hiruzen and Danzō, it was enough to accomplish the goals before them.
If they could fulfill their ideals, they would die without regret.
Tsunade reacted very differently.
The moment she learned that Kizaru's senjutsu training could extend his lifespan, she began planning to follow the same path.
It was not because she was afraid of death.
She simply refused to die first and leave Kizaru surrounded by other women.
Kizaru is mine!
I'll live and die beside him!
No one else is taking him from me!
Her reasoning was as forceful and uncompromising as ever.
Kizaru naturally gave Tsunade his full support.
He also hoped that the woman he loved would remain beside him throughout the long future awaiting them.
After three years of training, Kizaru had already achieved considerable success with senjutsu.
His body had developed an instinctive memory for sensing, balancing, and controlling natural energy.
Under normal circumstances, he could freely combine natural energy with his physical techniques and Haki in battle.
When necessary, he could also refine chakra, enter Sage Mode, and release an even greater level of combat power.
Kizaru had never fought an opponent who had truly reached the level of the Six Paths.
However, based on his own estimates, once he entered Sage Mode, he should be capable of fighting a Six Paths-level opponent on roughly equal footing.
There was only one thing that left him slightly disappointed.
He was still unable to assume the enormous light form foreseen by the Great Toad Sage.
The reason was simple.
Compared to the colossal amount of energy required for such a transformation, the natural energy Kizaru had accumulated was still far too limited.
He had not yet reached the minimum requirement necessary to transform.
Judging by his current rate of accumulation, it would take at least another ten to fifteen years before he possessed enough natural energy to use that gigantic form.
Kizaru was not concerned.
He could afford to wait.
Time was something he possessed in abundance.
For certain others, however, time had become painfully scarce.
Nearly three years had passed, and Uchiha Madara, who remained hidden within Kirigakure in the Land of Water, had grown even older.
Although he could still move freely, his deteriorating body made it increasingly difficult for him to engage in direct combat.
Madara understood better than anyone how little time he had left.
Because of that, he had not dared to waste a single moment during the past three years.
Through the power of the Sharingan, he gradually brought Kirigakure's most important senior officials under his control.
He even engineered a change in leadership.
The Third Mizukage eventually "died" after supposedly succumbing to a hidden illness caused by old battle wounds.
Afterward, Madara selected and supported a new leader.
Karatachi Yagura became the Fourth Mizukage.
Madara did not rely solely on genjutsu to control the young Yagura.
He used a combination of illusion, manipulation, indoctrination, and carefully inflicted suffering to break down Yagura's resistance.
At Madara's command, a Konoha shinobi under genjutsu killed Yagura's wife while she was away on a mission.
Her death became the wound through which Madara entered Yagura's heart.
Under Madara's continued influence, the Infinite Tsukuyomi became Yagura's obsession.
He came to believe that only by creating a dream world could he be reunited with his wife and live beside her once again.
To achieve that dream, Konoha—currently in possession of three tailed beasts—became Yagura's greatest enemy.
If he wished to realize the Infinite Tsukuyomi, he would need to defeat Konoha, kill Kizaru, and seize those tailed beasts.
Under Madara's guidance, Yagura threw himself into strengthening Kirigakure.
Within the village, he worked tirelessly to expand its military power.
Beyond its borders, he actively established contact with Kumogakure and Iwagakure.
Kirigakure and Iwagakure had accumulated a great deal of hatred over the years, particularly because the Second Mizukage and Second Tsuchikage had killed each other in battle.
Under ordinary circumstances, cooperation between the two villages would have been almost impossible.
However, Konoha's growing power and Kizaru's overwhelming presence had placed enormous pressure on the entire shinobi world.
Faced with such a threat, even old hatred could temporarily be set aside.
For Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure, joining forces to defeat Konoha had gradually become a common objective.
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